My pack, My mountains, My rules
by SawItComming
Summary: You are the leader of a pack of 700, living peacefully in the mountains. When Hougen shows up in hopes of recruiting you, your life becomes more interesting then you generally like.
1. Unwanted intruders

"Leader!"

I turned my head slowly toward the sound, it was coming from outside. I sighed and stood up, walking across the warm hut. I slid back the door and a gust of cold winter air greeted me harshly. I gazed to the path, though the snow.

A large black and tan Doberman with long pointed ears was flying down the path towards my hut.

A few of the dogs milling around the front stuck their heads up to watch.

The Doberman came to a halt at the steps to my house.

"Takahiro." I greeted my general.

"M'lady," Takahiro lowered his head for a second. "Intruders, in your territory." He stated in sharp, to-the-point words.

"Here..?" I looked through the trees at the white mountains around us. "Why here..?" I mumbled to myself, the wind playing with the long, unbound silver threads of my hair.

"M'lady." Takahiro demanded my attention. "They are demanding to see you, they say they won't leave until. Angelo is leading them here, as they would be no true threat to you."

"How many are there?"

"500, at least." Takahiro voice never wavered.

The dogs out front all gasped and whispered among themselves.

I raised my hand out to them, and they fell silent.

"500 is no danger to us." I assured them.

"M'lady.." Takahiro almost coughed. "Hougen is leading them."

"What? Hougen?!" Many of the dogs stood up in alarm.

"We are in no danger." I assured them again.

Other dogs returned, prey items hanging from their mouths. They dropped them on the food pile before sitting with the pack.

Much more then half of the pack was still away.

The dogs began talking among themselves once more, and I watched in silence as I saw them become distressed.

"Takahiro, call the rest of the pack back." I said, seeking to give my soldiers so comfort and security. I turned back into my hut and closed the door behind me.

Takahiro's proud howl cut through the air, summoning the pack home.

"What's going on?" Emi, a deep red furred female collie, looked up from her pillow.

"Hougen is coming." I finished blandly, almost coldly. I had no interest in hearing, or even seeing that monster.

Emi gasped, drawing her tail around her three red puppies and pulling them close to her belly.

"He won't hurt anyone, I suspect he's here to try to recruit us." I sat on my bed and looked over at her. "The others are worried, so Takahiro is calling everyone home. Angelo is leading Hougen here."

"Is he an idiot!?" She fussed loudly, then stopped, looking surprised at even herself.

I looked at her in surprise, she must have really been worried, she would never call a general an idiot otherwise. "It would be far worse to try to drive them away. As long as they believe we are a very significant potential ally, they would do anything harmful."

"Well, what do we do now?" Emi groomed her puppies.

I sat at my sewing machine and pushed the peddle up and down to make the wheel spin. I ran the cloth through under the needle. "Now we wait."


	2. Hougen and the Boar

"Leader!" Angelo called to me from outside. "We are here."

I could hear the murmuring of many dogs out side and I stood up.

"M'lady.." Emi whispered.

"It'll be fine." I smiled at her and walked across the hut slowly, taking slow, deliberate steps. I took a deep breath and slid back the door.

The first sight to greet me was a large harlequin great dane with docked ears, mouth agape. I smiled ever so slightly and stood up on the front of my bare feet, he was definitely not expecting a human. "Greetings.." I offered flatly.

Angelo, my second general, a large yet narrowly built border collie, fluffed his coat.

It took a moment for the giant dog to recover. "Heheheheh...Thank you all for your efforts to greet me." He laughed to the sky and suddenly turned his head to face me with his unnerving yellow eyes. "I am Hougen of the Alps."

"I am Yuuna.." I scratched the back of my heel with my other foot.

Everyone stood in silence.

"Well, come in.." I turned back into the hut. "I'll put on some tea."

I placed the kettle on the steel stove and motioned Hougen towards the couch.

"You have females." He noted as he jumped up onto the couch, he licked his lips and laughed.

Emi tensed and moved her pups closer to herself.

I suppressed a snarl and scooped leaves into the water.

"Tell me, Yunna...why do you let that skinny border collie be general? Surely a much stronger dog would be better suited for the job.."

I hated the way that violent dog watched me. "Angelo is quick and cunning, he can move almost as fast as a ninja dog, and he has strength enough. What the use of a general is he's strong but as dumb as a brick?"

Hougen seemed at a lost for words, his face slack.

Satisfied that he wasn't criticizing me for a moment, I poured myself a cup of tea and sat down at my sewing machine. "Well?" I asked after a while of the wind crying around my house. "What do you want?"

"What I want? Want I want is your safety." Hougen stuck his nose in the air. "A powerful enemy is coming, destroying all things in his path. If you combine your army with mine, then we can fight him off."

"Army? We are not an army." I stated calmly.

"I could help you train to be one. I'll even leave one of my generals here to help you." Hougen licked his lips. "However, I cannot leave you here unprotected." Something shined in those foul eyes of his.

"We are not unprotected." I growled.

"Then where are all your defenses?" Hougen said with a sneer in his voice.

"All around, where you cannot see, as a good scout does." I narrowed my eyes at him.

We glared on at each other for a minute or so before a voice broke the tension.

"Leader! The Boar!" One of my scouts cried.

I sprung up in heartbeat and rushed to the door.

I slid back the door and perched on the railing that led down the stairs.

A very large boar was walking down the path towards up, taking his sweet time. He stopped about 20 yards in front of my hut and looked around at all my dogs. "WHERE IS YOUR LEADER!?" The young male boar demanded. He was young, but tall, about as tall as I was.

I got down from my perch and stood in front of the door. "I am."

My generals, Takahiro and Angelo, flanked me.

"YOU HAVE KILLED AND EATEN MY BRETHEREN!"

"We have." I acknowledged with a nod. These were the mountains, you ate what was available. I reached just inside the door frame and wrapped my fingers around a spear barbed with boar's teeth. I struck beside me with the blunt end of the spear before stepping forward down the stairs.

My generals moved with me, but I stopped them.

"THEN I WILL KILL AND EAT EACH OF YOU, STARTING WITH YOUR LEADER!" The boar threw its head back and bellowed a laugh to the heavens.

"M'lady, why don't you let me take care of this?"

I turned around to see Hougen walking towards me in a very confident manner. I shot him a dangerous look and he halted his advance in an instant.

Hougen laughed slightly and back away towards his followers. "Let's see how a leader defends." He muttered.

I swung my spear and pointed it at the boar. "Then come and get me, you filthy pig!" I demanded.

The boar squealed in anger and charged at me.

I sidestepped, spun around, and smacked the boar's hindquarters with the spear's end as it charged past.

The boar roared in anger and tried again.

Swinging my spear around, I hooked it's leg with a tooth barb on the spear.

The boar fell and slid in the snow before picking itself back up.

I continued to dance around the boar for almost an hour. I caught a glimpse of Hougen's impressed look.

Finally, after an hour of battle, the boar turned to face me, his sides heaving in exhaustion.

"Leave now while you can, and I will let you live!" I called to him, feeling only slightly winded.

"I DO NOT NEED YOUR MERCY! YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE DOG THAT YOU ARE!" With a battle cry, the boar charged for the last time.

I spun against the direction the boar was coming and, using my spinning and his own momentum against him, drove the spear through his skull.

With a squeal, the boar dropped dead where it had stood.

I straightened out and my dogs all cheered.

"Bravo, bravo." Hougen interjected. "You are quite the fighter, but you should not have offered that pig mercy."

"Why? Because that's your way of doing things?" I growled, wiping a spray of blood off my face. "Well, I don't do things that way here, and I'm not interested in doing things your way."

"How dare you talk to Hougen-sama like that!" One of his followers shouted.

"Hey, Shut up!" Hougen yelled over his shoulder. "All we wanted was to make sure you were safe against this coming threat, but since you insist you don't need us, we'll be going." He began to walk down the path and his followers walked at his heels. "If you ever come under attack and need us, we will still take you in."

"Get off my mountain before I call the Tigerhounds." I threatened.

"You're not serious!?" Takahiro looked up at me in shock.

"I don't trust that Hougen in the least. I don't like the way he looked at Emi, and I don't like the way he looked at me. If he doesn't leave, I will call the Tigerhounds." I growled, struggling to pull the barbed spear from the skull of the boar corpse.

"I trust M'lady to do what she believes is right." Angelo's voice was a deep and steady as ever.

"What's right, huh?" I pulled out my knife and began to skin the boar. "Hideki." I summoned my best scout to me.

"Yes, M'lady?" A lithe Borzoi with a deep brown coat and a light underbelly trotted over to me.

"Trail them and report back to me when they are gone, stay out of sight and make sure they don't leave any unwanted guests behind."

"Yes, M'lady." Hideki nodded and started very slowly down the path.

"Things are about to become interesting." I sighed, pulling off the hide. "This is the food for tonight too. Anything that doesn't get eaten right away gets made into jerky." I called to the pack.


	3. Follow the trail, summon the hounds

Hideki POV

I walked carefully through the trees, tailing Hougen's army, as M'lady had ordered.

When Hougen's anger finally boiled over enough to make him stop, I followed his army's lead and stopped as well.

"That little shit..." Hougen growled. He threw his head back and roared in anger. "That little bitch, Yuuna!" He yelled.

I tensed and restrained myself from challenging him right then and there.

"She made a fool of us, all of us!" He yelled back at his army.

I could feel a violent storm brewing.

"I should have killed her then and there!"

"But Hougen-sama..." A follower spoke up, his voice shaky. "She could have killed us all.."

"What did you say..?" Hougen's voice and eyes were calm, but no one could deny the rage and hatred coming off of him.

"Sorry, Sir! What I meant was-!!"

The follower didn't have even enough time to explain.

Hougen was upon the poor dog in a moment, clamping large and strong jaws around the dog's throat. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" He demanded.

"I'm very sorry Sir!" The dog managed to cry.

I was shocked and frozen in place, helpless as I watched Hougen use the dog as a rag doll.

"SHUT UP!" Hougen yelled, letting go of the dog's throat. Before the dog hit the ground, Hougen clamped onto it's leg and, with a mighty shake of his head, slammed to dog into the base of a tree.

The dog's mangled body sunk to the ground, bloody and lifeless.

Hougen laughed, dragging his tongue over his lips. "Let's move." He starts up as though nothing had happened.

His group all nodded and trailed after him.

Even though they were gone, I stayed were I was. I had just witnessed a terrible and unjust killing. Closing my eyes with a sigh, I stepped out from under the bushes I was using for cover to take a closer look at the scene.

It was terrible, blood stained the white snow crimson with it's hot touch. Blood smeared down the tree trunk to where the body lay. I turned my head away, averting my gaze when a tiny noise caught my attention. I looked up, perhaps the body was not as lifeless as I had first guessed.

The body gasped, then sputtered before breathing.

I leaned over the dog. "Are you alright?"

"Help...me..." The dog managed slowly.

"Alright, just try to stay alive." I positioned myself and rolled the wounded dog on top of my back.

A somber and echoing howl winds like the wind around the mountain.

"The Tigerhounds?!" I gasped. "Hold on." I warned the dog and was off in a blink towards camp.

Yuuna POV

I watched my dogs eat from my perch on the porch's rail, eagerly anticipating the arrival of my Tigerhouds.

A scout howled from somewhere up the path and my eyes shot forward before widening.

Hideki was flying down the path, blood dripping from the dog on his back and staining his fur.

I leapt from my perch and dashed across the clearing. "What happened? Are you hurt?" I demanded.

"Hougen seems to think that you made a fool of him and, when a follower spoke up, tried to kill him." Hideki was barely even winded from the run.

"Take him to the healer!" I hissed in anger.

"Yes, leader." Hideki headed towards the small hut used by Kenta, the healer, a large and old Akita male.

I growled in anger and my dogs all turned to look at me.

Takahiro and Angelo trotted over to me.

"How long until _they_ are here?" I stressed the 'they'.

"Very soon, M'lady." Angelo nodded.

"Very well." I gritted my teeth. "I'm going to go check on that dog."

I pulled back to curtain to the Healer's den. "How is he?" I demanded, not meaning to sound so stern.

"He is alive, and getting better." Kenta's old and wise voice resonated in the structure.

I crouched beside the dog. "What is your name?" I asked, my voice softening.

The dog looked up at me in horror. "What are you going to do to me?" He gasped.

I tilted my head and my silver hair fell, framing my face. "Nothing, you are safe here." I promised, placing a hand on the dog's brown shoulder.

"R-Ryuu.." The dog sputtered.

"Ryuu?" I asked. "Meaning dragon?"

Ryuu nodded shakily.

"You don't seem like much of a dragon." I muttered, placing a finger over my lips.

"Hahaha!" Kenta bellowed. "Always one to point out faults, eh Yuuna? Even after all these year."

"Not faults, observations." I corrected quietly. I placed my hand on Hideki's head. "Are you safe?"

"Yes, M'lady." He stood up and stretched.

"Good." I smiled assuringly.

A wild howl unlike any other echoed around the camp.

"W-whats that!?" Ryuu shivered in fear.

"The Tigerhounds." I stated.

I stood outside my hunt, tall and proud as I listened to the sound of my Tigerhounds drawing closer.

Angelo and Takahiro flanked me as six large beasts came to a stop before me.

The Tigerhounds were impressive animals unlike any other. They had the long tails, back, and broad faces of a tiger while at the same time maintaining nimble paws and a long, vicious muzzle full of razor canines. They were as large as tigers with orange-brown fur and black stripes down their legs, face, and back.

"We have heard." Taiki, the leader of the Tigerhounds rumbled.

"Good, then you know what's going on. I feel Hougen is a danger to us, not as a whole, but individually, and I am unsure of what to think of this threat that had even Hougen worried." I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my kimono.

"We are here to protect." Taiki nodded his large head.

"Thank you." I bowed. "Angelo." I called.

"M'lady?" Angelo sat beside me.

"Take Shinobu and find this threat. If you can, separate their leader from their pack and bring him here." I ordered.

Shinobu, a spotted ninja dog, sat next to his commander.

"I would very much like to meet this threat if he had Hougen worried." I sent my general and his subordinate off.


	4. Weed, son of Gin

Angelo POV

My feet were flying as Shinobu and I charged down the path.

"What do you think of this 'Threat', sir?" Shinobu asked, running at my left side.

"I'm not sure, but if I know the leader, she suspects it no big deal, just a tale told by Hougen to scare others into joining him. He wouldn't have been so upset by Yuuna's refusal otherwise." I made a turn to get off the main path and go through the underbrush at the trail side.

Shinobu followed my lead in an instant, staying at my side.

"Up here!" With speed and agility that could rival a ninja-dogs, I jumped up the many branches to the near top of an old and white birch tree, scouting the area.

"There, sir." Shinobu stretched out his nose and pointed down the way to where a small group of dogs were trudging along.

"Hmm.." I examined the group, there were maybe 10 to 15 dogs down there. "Let's go, and be sure not the rustle the undergrowth."

///

We had snuck up on them easy enough, now we hid in the bushes nearby, a mere 20 feet away.

There was one dog, however, a pale German Shepard, who looked right at us, though he didn't seem to actually notice us. "What we do next is the leader's decision, we follow the leader." He said, looking over at the small Tora-Ge akita.

"That's their leader?" Shinobu snorted in surprise.

I nodded. "Climb the tree and go overhead, make sure they see your shadow. Once they're all looking the other way, I'll grab the pup. Once I have him, keep them from following me, no matter how many times you have to circle back."

"Sir!" Shinobu nodded and scurried up the tree silently before launching himself over the top of the trail.

"What was that?!" A younger sliver and scarred dog demanded, heading towards the direction Shinobu's shadow had traveled.

It worked, they all turned.

"Jerome, GB, and Rocket, I want you three to-!?" The pup never got to finish.

In an instant, I had seized him the back of his neck and pushed off in my escape.

"LEADER!" They all yelled, launching themselves at me.

I ran, the pup hanging from my mouth and yelling. "Quiet!" I snapped, checking back over my shoulder.

The spotted English setter was closest. "No one can match my endurance!" He bragged.

I slowed down and, when he got close enough, kicked him in the face.

The setter fell in a whine about how much that hurt.

I rolled my eyes and glanced back again.

The next closest were that German Shepard and the borzoi were up next. They were yelling all kinds of threats, but it didn't matter.

Shinobu appeared from the tree line and threw himself at the borzoi, who fell into the Shepard. Shinobu jumped away and proceeded to take them out, one by one, running circles around them.

"Release me! Release me!" The pup yelled over and over again.

I shook him once and he became quiet.

We were almost there.

///

Yuuna was sitting just outside her hut when I got there. She stood as I dropped the dog at her feet.

"Their leader." I bowed my head.

"Go work, Angelo." She praised me.

The pup stood up and tensed, growling.

The leader rolled her eyes. "I am sorry for the rough treatment, but I couldn't think of another way to get you here any fast, and time was of essence. I am leader of the Mountain Pack, Yuuna." And then she bowed.

All the dogs gasped, she had bowed to another.

"May I ask your name, young leader?" She asked gazing down at him.

"I am Weed, leader of the Ohu pack." Weed barked at her.

Yuuna looked shocked. "Ohu? Like Gin?" She came closer and squatted to observe to small akita. "You certainly do look like him." She mused.

Shinobu came running up the path. "Leader, I lead them away." He bowed.

"Excellent." She smiled. "Hideki, take a group of scouts and continue to lead them in circles, when you finally hear the signal, draw them here."

"M'lady!" Hideki nodded and headed off with a group of five other scouts.

"Well, come in, son of Gin." Yuuna held the door to her hut open.

///

Yuuna POV

The small akita was wary to enter at first, his body tense as he entered my hut.

I gestured with a hand to the couch and took a chair to myself. "So.." I asked once he was comfortable on the couch. "Why are you here?"

"We are here looking for dogs to join the Ohu army." The pup sounded very sure of himself.

"Why?" I questioned, taking a sip of almost frozen tea before staring down into the cup.

"Well...long story short...Hougen had captured my father..." He spoke to the floor.

My eyes bugged and I spewed my tea on the floor. "What?" I asked, wiping my mouth on my sleeve.

Weed looked at me strangely.

"How?!" I demanded. "Hougen was just here yesterday, trying to recruit us, I didn't see or smell Gin at all...no, you MUST be mistaken.." I insisted, though I knew at that moment it was true. "That bastard.." My grip tightened on my cup so tightly that it shattered in my hand, tiny clay shards cutting my hand.

"Yuuna!" Weed cried in surprise when I squeezed my fist so tightly, my nails bit into my palm.

"I knew Gin personally, he helped me learn to control my inner beast and form my pack." I growled. I jumped up and threw the door open.

"M'lady!" Takahiro proclaimed, watching blood drip from my hand.

"Weed's pack, send the orders to lead them here!" I yelled.

"Yes, Leader!" Takahiro bowed and yelped to another scout.

I closed the door behind me and wrapped a cloth around my hand. "We will do whatever it takes to get Gin back, I promise." I whispered to Weed.


End file.
